(29th Entry) The beat goes on…

Tonight I was meeting a friend for dinner. (If I hadn’t mentioned it before I’m in a great town called San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.) So we met in the Jardin, the city’s main plaza around 8:00. I casually asked him what he was hungry for. He said he liked this little Italian restaurant down the street. We walked to the restaurant and when we arrived we were asked if we had reservations. I thought this was kind of odd because the city is very slow. Luckily they had a table against the wall. When we were sitting my friend said, “That was Doc Severinson over there.”

I didn’t realize that this was the restaurant where Doc plays several nights a week. I know he lives here and I even met his wife a few months ago. OK this isn’t really what my blog is about, but it started me thinking. Sometimes I wonder where my next entry will take me and then it suddenly comes to me. In this case it came to me as I listened to the music…

Side note: The music was incredible. Doc and the rest of the band were absolutely inspirational! They played a wide array of music from all parts of the world.

Back to my Blog…

When I was young I used to bang on everything. It was obvious that I wanted to be a drummer. As luck would have it my parents had some friends whose son had a marching snare drum in his closet. My Mom would go over to visit while their son was in school and I was allowed to play in his room. Many times I would get the drum out and beat on it. In the beginning I would just hold a drumstick and make noise, but then I began to watch how the stick bounced. The problem was… how was I going to hold two drum sticks?

I wish I could remember with more accuracy what happened over time. I just remember trying many things and many ways to somehow hold two drumsticks. The problem wasn’t holding two drumsticks it was making them move that seemed to be the issue.

I really wanted to play the drums. Tonight as the music played, my feet were tapping and when no one was looking I was banging on the table. Old habits die hard! It’s just natural with me.

I began to put the two drumsticks against my side, placing my arms over the drumsticks and pressing them against my side. Still nothing happened. I wonder how many times I tried different techniques. One day something happened… I began to use my elbows to move the drum sticks up and down. Little by little I began to make them bounce on the head of the drum. With more practice I made them move evenly, hit evenly. In other words… with rhythm.

I remember that moment when I knew that I could do it. I think I even called my Mom and her friend into the room. I knew! I had figured it out. I had done it. I knew I could do it. (This was somewhere before the age of 8. I wish I could get closer but I don’t remember.

At the end of the 5th grade it was time to sign up for band. Band began in the 6th grade. I remember my parents going with me to an event held at night where parents signed their kids up for band. I won’t go into much detail, mainly because my memory is so fuzzy. I do remember the band director having doubts about me being able to play the drum, but… The next thing I remember is that my parent’s and I went to buy me a drum at a large music store.

Skipping to the 8th grade, because I did play the drums and I was pretty good at it so I made it through two years of band. In the 8th grade I joined the marching band. We lived in Texas and football season is hot. It was grueling, but I did it. Marching band was especially difficult because the drum sat low and moved when you marched, but somehow I survived. In addition, I played competitions and did well in several events.

I ended my drumming career at the end of the 9th grade. In the 10th grade I entered into Man and His Environment, the three hour a day class that I’ve talked about in previous blogs which prevented me from being able to continue.

I’ll talk more in the next blog about the meaning of this period of my life… But yes… I did play the snare drum.